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Lost_dragon
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03 Feb 2018, 6:11 am

What are the main differences? How would you distinguish the two from each other?


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bumbleme
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04 Feb 2018, 8:45 am

Well, HSP is supposedly a "normal" personality trait and SPD a "disorder". I bet there's a lot of overlap though.


I imagine that someone could identify as HSP without having sensory sensitivities. Some may just be very sensitive aesthetically and emotionally. Or they might have some level of sensory sensitivity but not to the level where they feel discomfort touching particular textures, smelling particular scents, etc.

When it comes to HSPs with sensory sensitivity, I'm not too sure. A couple of my "HSP" family members had sensory issues. My younger brother didn't like tags in clothes. Tags had to be cut out. It didn't seem like a huge problem for him though. Once the tag was out he seemed fine. I doubt he'd be diagnosed with SPD (Though could be wrong :?: ). Another relative would take clothes off at first opportunity and when she was a young adult would walk to the children's playground late at night so she could use the swings for up to an hour. As far as I know she isn't diagnosed with anything, but I think she would qualify for SPD...
I wonder if non-SPD HSPs have hypo-sensitivities too?


I think Elaine Aron (who coined the term Highly Sensitive Person) would probably want to distance the two if she could. A few years ago I read a one of her blog posts. People had been asking her about the connection between HSP and autism. (This is coming from my less than brilliant memory.) The gist was that there wasn't a connection. HSPs are super-sensitive to others' needs and autistic people lack sensitivity to other's needs. It seemed like she was quite defensive and overprotective of her HSP idea and was trying to distance it from anything called a disorder or disability.



bumbleme
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04 Feb 2018, 8:59 am

Also, HSP isn't the same as introversion, but there's a fair bit out there on "introversion", actually describing sensitivity. e.g. Susan Cain's book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop"
If you are an MBTI INXX or an ENFP, you are probably HSP. The other ENXX maybe also. Also many ISFX I think would be HSP.



starcats
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04 Feb 2018, 9:40 pm

The HSP thing to me seems like a way to belong and feel valid without having the scary autism label. I know some people might not agree, but I don't really think the occurrence rate of people with autism is only 1 in 68 and all with it are diagnosed. HSP says 20% of the population, introverted is about 25%. I think they're all different presentations of a similar thing. I see it as a multi dimensional spectrum, unique for each person. Some may be more or less verbal, some may be more or less emotional, some may have more or less sensory issues, some may be more or less empathetic. It might show more like gifted, introverted, HSP, or ASD depending on the individual. I can't stand the diagnosis label nit picking, it would be more helpful to focus on what helps each individual than what to call it. I also think Elaine Aron couldn't really understand autism for her to so pointedly reject any connection.